School Choice in Pennsylvania Is a Bigger Threat to the Left than the Loss of Union Power in Wisconsin

Breaking the government education monopoly would reveal the inefficiency and incompetence of government, while simultaneously threatening the power of the National Education Association, which is a major source of money and power for the left.

Helping poor people lead better lives, though, is not a priority for the left. If people are less dependent on government, they probably are less likely to reflexively support those who want to make government even bigger.

This is why it is good news that the promise of school choice in Pennsylvania (which I wrote about last year) is about to become a reality.

The most promising development is occurring in Pennsylvania, where a state-wide voucher bill supported by new Governor Tom Corbett is moving through the Republican-controlled legislature. Children in the Keystone State’s 144 worst schools—where students scored in the lowest 5% on recent state exams—would be eligible for a voucher. …in 1996, but unions blocked the idea by claiming that lack of spending was the real education problem. Time has proven that wrong again. According to the Commonwealth Foundation, a state think tank, “taxpayer spending on public schools has doubled to $26 billion per year” over the past 15 years. Pennsylvania taxpayers spend more than $13,000 per student, or “$2,000 more than the national average and more than 39 other states.” In some of the worst school districts, per pupil spending approaches $20,000. Yet scores on national tests have been flat for years, with only 40% of Pennsylvania 8th graders at or above proficiency in reading and math. Even state tests, which have lower standards, show that only about half of Pennsylvania 11th graders are proficient in reading and math.

What’s especially encouraging about the developments in Pennsylvania is that some traditionally left-wing folks have realized that it’s time to put the best interests of kids above the interests of the teacher unions. I particularly admire the role of a black state senator.

Mr. Williams, who is black, has taken some heat for his pro-voucher stance from local civil rights groups. “The NAACP nationally is opposed to this and locally is opposed to this, and they call me all sorts of funny names,” he tells us. “But the truth is that a lot of the people in the NAACP don’t acknowledge that they send their own kids to private schools. They’ve left. They’ve moved away.” Several local labor groups in Philadelphia have also broken with the teachers union and endorsed vouchers. “We believe that children from all economic backgrounds deserve a chance for a bright future,” said John Dougherty of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98. “School choice programs will give them that chance.”

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2 Responses

A better alternative to school vouchers would be giving parents a choice in educational philosophies, especially in the elementary school. This is the time when a child is most receptive to learning and to attitude shaping. This is also the reason why parochial schools (those few that are left) do a better job: they haven’t abandoned traditional teaching methodologies.

People today would be appalled at the conditions in my elementary school in a small Pennsylvania town where I started school more than 60 years ago: a wooden building built in 1879; no cafeteria; no gym; no air conditioning; no school buses; 50+ students per class; no teachers’ aids; no computers or closed-circuit TV; no field trips; dog-eared textbooks; underpaid teachers who were products of 2 year “normal schools” and the “teaching supplies” consisted of 1 writing tablet and two pencils every 6 weeks plus chalk for the blackboard.

But my teachers used a methodology that was highly effective; that of Edward Lee Thorndike and we learned quickly and thoroughly. I trace today’s problems to the time when Thorndike was replaced by “progressive” philosophies based on “gestalt theories of learning.” I won’t get into why they don’t work as advertised, but more keep popping up all the time.

If vouchers are adopted, there are likely to be more students wanting admission than established private and parochial schools can accommodate. Any newly established schools would be staffed by teachers who are unfamiliar with traditional methods.